All Their Own
by xXSimplySunshineXx
Summary: Pepper has been dreaming of a special moment for over four years; the day Tony finally decides to step up, and propose to her after those wonderful four years of their dating. But, little did the twenty-year-old know, was that the beautiful moment only circulating through her dreams, was about to occur. The summary is horrible, read if you want to.


**A/N: **_Hello again,_

_I kind of got a little depressed because of a test. (Hey, writer's are perfectionists!) So, I decided to write this little tidbit of nothingness. I love writing proposal scenes, but I don't get to do it very often, and it helped cheer me up some. It's really not that good because I didn't proofread, but, I thought I might spread out my wings a bit and let you amazing people read it._

_And without further ado..._

* * *

Pepper smiled as she timidly surveyed the restaurant Tony had taken her to.

It was so different from the places they had gone before, the general atmosphere screamed romance. That was so unlike him. Usually, they would go to the movies, a simple café, the park, sometimes they would even stay at home watching whatever was on. The latter was one of their favorites. They would curl up with each other until she started to fall asleep, or Tony decided to switch to the horror movie channel "accidentally" during one of the terrifying slasher scenes. That never ended well. She usually punched him in the arm, called him a jerk, and he'd laugh, pull her closer, and she would instantly forgive him.

Despite her better judgement.

Tonight, he had brought her flowers, thornless roses, her favorite. Which grabbed her attention immediately. Her boyfriend almost never bought her flowers because he said that he needed something special to give her on a special occasion. Now that she thought about it, that specific type of rose meant love at first sight...was this night different from the others for some reason? It wasn't their anniversary, although it was awful close, It wasn't her birthday, and it wasn't any other holiday she could think of. So, why did he buy her flowers, and take her here? He always avoided expensive, fancy places to stay grounded, never once venturing near parties, or similar things. Tony wasn't one to mingle with high society. This must be a special occasion, but for the life of her, she couldn't figure out what.

Pepper played with the skirt of her cherry dress. It was better than playing with her hair, she spent hours fixing it just so, exactly the way he liked it. She dropped her eyes down to the floor, suddenly feeling very nervous, like they were on their first date again. Everything was so awkward; the occasional sideways glance from the other patrons, and the way he looked at everything in the room but her. A single candle was lit in between them, a table set for two. Again, very unlike him. When her boyfriend asked her for out to dinner earlier today, he also asked if she could dress up. Although she was highly confused, she complied, wearing one of her nicest satin dresses. To her pleasant surprise, he had dressed up as well. Formally.

This was definitely a special occasion.

Maybe this was about the company, and he wanted to tell her about it himself. Typical Tony, nothing wrong there. But if that was true, he would be grinning like a dumb clown by now. He was never good at hiding anything from her. Or lying...period. For the first time that night, he looked directly into her eyes, and she couldn't help the small blush that formed on her cheeks from the pure affection and adoration in his gaze.

"Do...do you like it?" he questioned, his eyes relaying worry.

"What? Oh, you mean here! Yes, I do, it's nice, but you know that I would be perfectly fine with just a walk in park." she replied, trying to extinguish his worry with her loving gaze.

"But tonight isn't-you'll find out," the eyes wandered again.

"Trying to be all mysterious are we? You're not really good at it." she tried to lighten the mood, and decrease the awkwardness between them, but the burning stares from customers weren't helping things much.

"Ha. Ha. Very funny, but in all seriousness tonight is special." It worked! Tony turned back to her with a familiar, mischievous twinkle in his eyes.

"I'm not going to take you seriously when you use the word 'seriousness.' Dear."

"You're hilarious."

"I know...hey!"

They were smiling widely now, fully enjoying every single second they were spending together, but that one question kept popping up in the back of Pepper's mind...

"Are you going to tell me what you're up to?" she couldn't keep the question in any longer.

"Nope." he popped the 'p', "you'll just have to wait."

"But I can't!"

"Patience, I want this to be one of the happiest nights of your life.

"Tony?" Oh...my...was he? Did he mean? No, she was overreacting, but if he did, she was going to squeal. Definitely. She had dreamed about this since she was sixteen, for four whole years, him and her forever.

He took a sip of water before answering, "What?"

"Um, nothing. Nothing. I was just, uh, thinking. D-do you want to order now, or do you want to keep talking?" she swirled her finger around the rim of her own glass, lost in her zooming thoughts as she stared into the clear liquid.

"I would rather talk with you," he reached for her hand on the glass, taking it in both of his, and staring straight into her eyes.

"A-about what?" she was blushing for the second time tonight. It was her turn to be nervous.

"Certain...things."

"What things?"

"Something that I've been thinking about for a long time," he sounded so confident, something she was lacking at the moment. Confidence.

"What?" she squeaked, then swallowed abruptly.

"Pepper, I...I was thinking that," he sighed, "I'm not doing this right."

Tony took a deep breath before letting go of her hand, and getting out of his chair to stand beside her, her wide eyes following every slight movement.

"What are you doing?" she whisper-yelled as he got down on one knee, reaching into his pocket. He was doing what she-

"Patricia Potts, will you...will you be...will you marry me?" he lifted the lid, revealing a stunning engagement ring. On the yellow gold band held three circle-cut, white diamonds, each intricately placed inside four equally golden prongs. The middle diamond was significantly larger than the ones on the sides, and nine more separate, small, precious stones embedded in the band, emphasizing the larger ones on the top. Overall, it was simply gorgeous.

No amount of day-dreaming could ever prepare her for the real thing; Tony looking into her eyes with genuine love, searching them for some sort of answer, but her mind wouldn't coöperate. She was utterly shocked, even though she knew this was inevitable, it was too perfect. He was still searching, but the hope in his eyes began to dwindle the longer she stared in shock.

And she stared for a long time.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know what I was thinking. Just...pretend this never happened," he closed the black velvet box slowly, not meeting her eyes. She quickly slid off her chair, and got down on her knees in front of him, placing a hand on his over the box.

"Don't say that, I just couldn't process what was happening. I love you so much, I couldn't believe that you actually wanted to spend the rest of your life with me, and that's the complete truth." tears were threatening to make their way down her face, "I want to marry you, Tony, I want to be with you forever, and if you'll have me, I'll be honored to be your wife." the tears were falling now, one by one, staining the expensive carpet below.

He pulled her into a tight embrace, the box long forgotten, dropped beside them. "Whenever you want to, I'm not going to force anything," he said into her ear,

"As soon as we can," she mumbled against his neck, her eyes shut tightly.

"Fine with me," he tightened his arms around her, completely forgetting about the ring until he opened his eyes to see the box still sitting on the carpet. "I kind of forgot about this," he let go of his love and took the box, "just to make it official."

"Would you?" she nodded towards the ring.

"Sure," he took her left hand, and slid the ring onto the correct finger delicately, "Looks like I guessed right," a light chuckle left his lips, "it's a perfect fit."

"It's beautiful, thank you," she said, admiring the engagement ring with an adoring sparkle in her eye.

"I knew you'd love it...not to ruin the moment, but we should get off the floor." he took her hand, and helped her up. Sliding an arm around her shoulders he asked, "Are you happy?"

"Are you kidding me? I can barely keep from bouncing off the walls!" Pepper wrapped her arms around his neck, exclaiming, "I love you!" and she then pressed a kiss to his cheek, "when do you want to tell your dad?"

"Since I have some an unveiling on Saturday," he smiled, and let his arm slip to her waist, "I figured we could make it a surprise."

"That's perfect! I can't wait, this is wonderful, thank you, thank you, thank you! Oh, we're going to be so happy, we're going to be a wonderful family!"

"Slow down, you're going to fly through the roof."

"Oh, sorry. I kind of got, you know, excited."

"I could tell. Just let me pay first, okay?"

"Can you hurry? Please?"

"Alright. Don't bounce off the walls."

"Yes, dear."

Tony smiled, gave her a tight hug, and a chaste kiss before he strode away. With a bright smile, she switched her gaze from her love, to the promise on her finger. Soon, she would marry her true love, a man she had only dreamed of, had only a secret affection for in past years. A love-struck haze covered her vision as he came back, and clasped her hand. Their eyes locked on each other's, they walked out of that restaurant together, the one they would no doubt remember for the beautiful years to come. Beautiful, lovely, wonderful years they would spend as a family. Their family.

All their own...

* * *

**A/N:** _Yeah, so, the ending stinks worse than ripe Limburger cheese, I know. But, I didn't want to fix it, because it's close to midnight...and if I try to write at midnight...well, the end result is usually a mess, and I didn't want to wait. I'm impatient. _


End file.
